Processing wafers used to form semiconductor devices includes several etching and cleaning processes to form features of the semiconductor device on the wafers. The etching processes involve removal of material either directly from the wafers or from layer formed on the wafers. The etching processes leave behind residual material which is removed during the cleaning processes. In an interval between an etching process and a cleaning process, moisture from a surrounding atmosphere reacts with the residual materials and forms compounds which cause damage to the wafers or the layers on the wafers, in some instances. For example, in an etching process using tetrafluoromethane (CF4) as the etchant, the residual material may include cryptohalite ((NH4)2SiF6). Cryptohalite reacts with moisture in the form of water vapor to produce ammonia (NH3) and hydrofluoric acid (HF). The ammonia and hydrofluoric acid will remove material from the wafer and layers formed on the wafer, in some instances.
In order to reduce the impact of the residual materials, the wafers are transferred from the etching process to an intermediate process which uses nitrogen gas to reduce the moisture content around the etched wafers. The lower moisture content decreases the chance of reactions between the residual material and the moisture creating damaging compounds. However, the time required to transfer the wafers to the intermediate process increases the production time for creating the semiconductor device. In some instances, a time between the intermediate process and the cleaning process is sufficiently long to allow the moisture content in the atmosphere around the wafers to increase to a point where damaging compounds are formed on a surface of the wafers resulting in damage to the wafers and potentially rendering the wafers unusable.